Peter's Team Diabetes Triathlon (and formerly Marathon) Blog

Today was the first workout of week T minus 7. Coach Mike put together an interesting plan. The first 30 minutes of easy pace running were punctuated with 100m sprints every 5 minutes. Then, the middle section of the run was 20 minutes at threshold pace and I finished with 10 minutes at easy pace. Great weather today so it was a pleasure to get out at noon hour and get my training done.

The last couple of days I have come upon a number of interesting blog sites maintained by other runners. Watch for them to be added to my links in the lefthand margin in the coming days.

Here he is in a picture from the mid-1960's holding my younger brother Stephen.

Last night was closing night of a 4 day run for my daughter Stephanie's high school musical production - The Pajama Game. Steph was a "triple threat" - singing, dancing and acting the part of Mara. The show was great and of course I was the proudest papa in the theatre!

Those of you who have been reading on a regular basis will know that my Saturday long runs have been cursed by bad weather over the past month - ccccccold and wwwwwwindy.

Today the weather was a LOT better. We had some snow overnight but it was very mild so the streets were wet but not at all slushy or icy. I was able to run the full route without my yaktrax.

I did a 90 minute progressive run today with the first 30 minutes at easy pace followed by 30 minutes at threshold pace and then 30 minutes easy pace to finish. I am really pleased because I was able to meet or exceed the pace targets that Coach Mike established. He'll probably tell me I shouldn't have pushed so hard but it felt great to go a little faster than usual!!

Also gave me even more appreciation for how FAST elite marathoners are going. I was pushing hard to be run 8:30/mile for 3 miles. They run 5:00/mile for 26.2 !!!

One of the things you learn when training for a marathon is that you don't just "find" time to get in your daily run, you have to "make" time. It's too easy to blow off a run one day, then have something unexpected happen to interfere the next day, etc. Pretty soon, you've missed the better part of a week's training.

Last night I had intended to do some sprint intervals but just as I was about to leave for the field house, my sister-in-law who is visiting from Calgary ended up with a MASSIVE migraine. I don't think I have seen someone in such pain from a headache before. I was the only other one at home so into the car and up to the hospital we went. She was treated with an IV and some medication that helped to some extent and so 5 1/2 hours after we presented in the ER we were on our way home.

Today I am travelling to Saint John for university business so wasn't going to be possible to squeeze in a lunch hour run. Decided instead that I would do a mid-morning run, before I hit the highway to SJ. That's what I mean by "making time" or "finding a way".

Hope that tonight I might be able to get up to the fieldhouse and do the sprint intervals. We'll see.

Received this letter by email today:

This week marks the one year anniversary for my training. Although I have been running for longer than that, it was on Feb 21/06 that I "officially" began training for the Fredericton Half Marathon which in turn led into my training for the New York City Marathon and from there right into my training for the upcoming Boston Marathon. A conservative estimate would be that during the year I have run over 1500 miles/2400 kilometers. That's more than the distance to run from Fredericton to Ottawa and back!!

Noticed that the temperature today in Fredericton was, for a while, actually warmer than the temperature in Boston !!! It didn't last long though.

Yesterday's plan was to do another 20-miler. Recall that on Superbowl weekend I was supposed to have done the same but mother nature intervened and I was unable to complete it. For the past two weeks I've been obsessing about NOT getting that one done so I really needed to complete this weekend's run.

Happy to report that I did the full 20 miles with an average pace of 10:50/mile. I had hoped to be closer to 10:30 but all things considered I guess the pace was fine, I'm a little sore today but that's to be expected and as the day progresses I'm sure the kinks will get worked out.

Monday update on Saturday's run:

I decided that I would do a double loop that would allow me to come by the house partway through in case I needed to dump clothes or refill my waterbottle or in case the run was going poorly. Instead of two equal loops though I decided that I would do 7.7 miles out to make the first loop 15.4 miles and then add 5 miles by doing a 2.5 mile out/back.

I started off feeling really strong. I was running with the yaktrax on my shoes and the footing was marginal but I still felt like I was keeping a good pace. By mile 5 I was out onto a section of roadway that was clear and wide so I was able to take the yaktrax off which was nice. At that point I was right on 10:30/mile pace. I continued to the turnaround point. Just before I got there a white panel van was approaching me and appeared to be quite close to the shoulder. Just as it pulled alongside (going about 70 or 80 kph) the side door swung open. Near scared the crap out of me!!! I'm sure the occupants had a good chuckle. Suffice to say, I hurled a few choice words at them but they were long gone.

Notwithstanding the van, I reached the turnaround and was still right on 10:30 pace. The next 2-3 miles went by OK and when I glanced at my watch it seemed like I was really picking up the pace. Turns out it was because I had stopped the timer at an intersection and then forgot to restart it. DUH !! I started the watch again and noted the section of road that I had had covered with the time stopped so that I could adjust things when I got home and had to figure out my overall pace.

At mile 12 I stopped in at a convenience store and bought some Gatorade to refill the bottle in the fanny pack I carry. I usually drink the lemon-lime flavour but they didn't have it so I switched to some sort of berry flavour. Man, did it ever taste sweet. Kind of nice at first but after a while it started to taste sickly.

As miles 12 through 14 passed I could feel my pace slipping. It was a result of being fatigued, poor footing, going uphill and into a fairly stiff wind. What a dreadful combination !! Nevertheless, as I reached mile 14 I decided that I would turn back and run 2.5 miles in the opposite direction. That way, I wouldn't be tempted to stop at the end of the first 15 and would have no choice but to soldier on to complete the full 20-miles.

I chose a good stretch to do the extra 5 miles. Although the first section was uphill, the wind was at my back and gave me a nice little boost. Then a downhill section that was sheltered. I made the turn and ran back uphill, also sheltered from the wind. By the time I started the last open downhill section the wind had subsided a bit so I got to enjoy a boost from gravity.

The final mile or so was tough. I was feeling a lot of tightness in my left hamstring and my left knee. I ended up having to take a few walk breaks but at least I kept moving forward. Having completed what I estimated was the full 20 miles, I stopped the timer and decided to walk the last 2 short blocks to get home. It's always important to keep moving after a long run. Apparently it helps to get the lactic acid out of your leg muscles. All I know is that it felt great to be walking instead of running.

As I said at the outset, I was hoping to maintain a slightly better pace than 10:50/mile but I am really satisfied that I got the run done. It's a big psychological boost to know that I was able to do 20 miles in less than optimal conditions. The marathon is only 6 miles (10k) more and the weather is bound to be better (please God, let the weather be better!!!).

8 weeks till race day.

Managed to get in my run after work yesterday. Although it was pretty cold and windy, it felt good to be outside. Its nice that the daylight hours are getting a little longer too. Rest day today and with a 220 minute (20 mile) run to do either tomorrow or Sunday. Giddyup.

I encourage everyone to read:

http://www.helpteamdiabetes.com/February14HappyValentinesDay.htm

If the spirit moves you, a donation to their fundraising would surely be appreciated.

http://www.helpteamdiabetes.com/sponsor_us_2007.htm

I've added two more links that you might be interested to read. The first is to a chap named Harry in Nova Scotia. He is part of the Team Diabetes program and is aiming to do the "Goofy" challenge next January at Disney World. The "Goofy" is aptly named - participants do a Half marathon on Saturday and then a Full marathon on Sunday. Like me, Harry is a Type 2 diabetic.

The other link is to Jason in North Carolina. He has dubbed himself "The Running Man" and when you read what he has accomplished in terms of improving his health, you'll understand why.

Had a good training run on Saturday. The weather was warmer than it has been of late (around -9c) and the winds were calmer. I did a similar loop to the one that I had run last weekend. For the 10.2 miles that I ran my average pace was 10:30/mile. Rest day today then a session of 6 x 600m intervals tomorrow. Today marks exactly 9 weeks to go.

With my new found resolve I headed out for a run yesterday at noon. I believe the windchill was -25c or so. I was wearing: windbriefs, running tights, windpants, turtleneck, long sleeve shirt, long sleeve sweatshirt, light weight jacket, track suit jacket, gloves, balaklava and sunglasses. It took almost as long to get dressed and undressed as it did to run the 5k distance.

Yesterday when I was out to the Base for the graduation parade I couldn't get over the number of people outside exercising. There were several platoons of trainees out in full kit doing rucksack marches, lots of runners and the parking lot at the Base gymnasium looked like Wal-Mart on Christmas eve. All this in windchills of -30c !!!! I realised that I have no basis for whining about the cold so I'm resolved not to complain about the cold interfering with my training. To prove this I ran outside yesterday after work and I am heading outside at lunch today, even though the thermometer is around -23c at the moment.

That's how long until I will be "toeing the line" in Hopkinton MA, the place where the Boston marathon starts.

My weekend training didn't go exactly to plan. We had a fairly significant snowfall late Friday/early Saturday. That meant that as I headed out for my run the streets were still a mess and the sidewalks unplowed (for the most part). Plus, it was very windy. I had planned to do two loops of a 9 mile route but by part way through the first I knew that there was no way I was going to be able to do both. So, I stopped after the first loop but resolved to get back out again on Sunday for another long-ish run.

On Sunday the roads and sidewalks were in somewhat better shape. Weather was still tough - it was VERY windy and any open areas had lots of drifting/blowing snow. Nevertheless, I managed to do an 11 mile route.

Although I wasn't happy with cutting the Saturday run short, I'm proud of myself for getting back out there and doing some more mileage on Sunday. Both days my pace was slow (11:00) but that is attributable to the conditions and to my coach's instructions to slow down my long runs.

10 weeks to go ...

Tomorrow I am scheduled to run 200 minutes which, if memory serves from my NYC marathon training, is the longest run that I will do prior to race day. It'll be a big test. It seems pretty earlier to be training at this distance but Coach Mike has a method to his madness. I probably won't have another run of this distance for 2 or 3 weeks - to give my body time to recuperate!!

I've added links to both Manulife and John Hancock (insurance companies) to acknowledge that it is through them that I have been given the opportunity to train for Boston. Thanks in particular to Kevin Higgins for nominating me!!

Due to another commitment I had to miss my run yesterday so in spite of a busy schedule and another ccccccold day, I set out at lunchtime to get my workout in. I completed 4 miles in 42 minutes for a 10:30/mile pace. Once again, considering that much of the time I was running on barely plowed sidewalks, I'm pretty content with my performance.

Added another blog link. This one is to Kathy's blog. She and Colleen (her blog is also linked) are both training for Boston 07 as part of TnT - Team in Training.

Received my 2007 Boston Marathon Invitational Entry form in the mail. I have completed it and am ready to mail it back which means it's time for me to pony up the $200 US entry fee. At current exchange rates that's $236 CDN. I must be totally crazy - I'm PAYING $9 for the privilege of every mile that I will run or better yet, I'm PAYING $52.44 for every hour that I expect to be on course !!!

I've also signed a legal document that says I can't sue for "... injuries, illnesses or death suffered while participating in the Event". How's that for grim reality!!